prendeur
French
Noun
prendeur m (plural prendeurs)
- a laborer working as part of an early Middle Age share cropping system known as complant - a precursor to the métayage system. Under this system, the prendeur would cultivate land owned by a bailleur. In exchange for using the bailleur's soil, the prendeur promised a share of the crop or its revenue. The length of this partnership varied and sometimes would extend over generations
References
- Hugh Johnson, Vintage: The Story of Wine pg 116. Simon and Schuster 1989.
Further reading
- “prendeur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.